manalex

IMHO, connectivity is the differentiator. If all your looking for is a GPS timer with good software analysis you can get a pretty good one for $500 or less. Heck, I understand there may even be an app for an iPhone that does this. If you want to be able to process data from the car in conjunction with the other GPS functions, that's when things start to get expensive. I found the deeper I got into the sport, the more wanted these options.

I bought a Vbox (Performance Box) and its pretty good, but I can't hook it up to the car and get any data from it, i.e. RPM, an exact braking point or % braking, % throttle, etc. If you want to do that, the bottom of the food chain in terms of price is the Traqmate (at the prices mentioned above). The alternatives get pretty expensive after that.

I'm leaning toward upgrading to the traqmate for price and connectivity-most bang for the buck. At this level, just can't see any advantage to spending much more for incremental improvements.

Giacomo

Like everything in motorsport, it's all about how much do you want to spend.

If all you want is lap times, and you already have a PDA/smartphone, go for something like Maxqdata, as Gary suggests, and for $250 you get your GPS actual laptimes, predictive laptimes and trackmapping, logging of speed and g's which you can analyze without having to lug a notebook to the track. There may be others in the same general price range but I only have experience with maxqdata.

If you want more data capabilities, and are driving a street car, traqmate is popular but definitely go for the display unit. Otherwise you will have to download data after every run. With the display you can at least see on the fly lap times and predictive lap times which at least gives you some instant feedback. This is the $1K option.

If it is a dedicated track car I'd jump to the racepak iq3 loggerdash for a couple of hundred bucks more. It is what I put in the race car and I can't think of anything I would want that it cannot accomodate.

Beyond that you can jump to AIM or Motec which is in another price category altogether.

APKhaos

Actually, if all you really want is an in-car lap time display then its worth looking at one of the many GPS phone-based apps. RaceChrono, iLap, Harry's Lap Timer, and others. Definitely the cheapest solution by far.

If you are thinking that data logging and analysis might be worthwhile too, then there are several good sup-$1000 options. Take a look at the Racepak G2X - great display, and very strong software.

dave morris

Would you expand on this. What specifically is better about the capabilities of the Racepak software? Thanks.

APKhaos

Let's start by saying that I don't want to get into a pi$$ing contest here. I don't have a horse in this race, but I do have the data analysis software from most vendors installed here, and use them on a fairly regular basis in customer support for TrackVision. What follows is a quick comparo based on this experience.

Traqmate's design objective was simplicity. The idea was to make something very simple to use, and it clearly resulted in lots of sales. The software focus was on features like the ability to run your buddies data and yours together so you could see the car markers travelling the track in a virtual 'race'. Its definitely easy to use, but there are very few features that provide any depth of analysis. This is not a knock on the software. Traqmate has sold lots of units, and there are lots of drivers that really like it because it IS simple to use.

Racepak's software is almost the diametric opposite. Its has a raft of analytic features that have been developed over 20+ years of professional racing use. While the basic 'show my data' features are pretty easy to use it does take a while to explore everything it can do, and there's a lot of it! You can compare anything to anything in graphic or columnar form, add math channels, look at high/low/average values for any channel over a sector, a lap, a session, across sessions, and much much more.
Racepak has produced some nice video tutorials to expose a lot of these features, which is a plus.
Its also worth a mention that the Racepak sensor channel management is really polished. Adding a channel, applying filters, setting range limits etc is dead easy. Their Warning system is similarly easy to set up. For example, its a snap to set up warnings for things like oil pressure/temerature etc, so that they are only active when the engine is running. No more BIG RED WARNINGS when you turn the key :-)

Gary R.

I'll give you a good deal on an AIM Pista with GPS!

paradisenb

What are you using these days? Why dump the AIM?

Gary R.

I want integrated Video and AIM is just too damn expensive, won't cooperate with Trackvision, and I don't like their software. Other than that it works perfectly and is the best hardware (IMO) out there..

fc-racer

Tony, any recommendation on where to buy the G2X from?

APKhaos

Call Steve at OG Racing. He ran the GB and has been known to offer great prices to RListers. Tell him you missed the GB, but........

fc-racer

Thanks Tony, I'll give him a call. With our Canadian dollar doing so well, this may be a perfect time to buy one. Now if only I could decide between the G2X and the IQ3!

APKhaos

As a general thought, the G2X is ideal for a car with stock interior. The display is smaller, and can be mounted anywhere that you can see it.
The IQ3 dash needs to be mounted in the driver's eyeline, which basically means in front of or in place of a stock dash.

Both are great units. I had the G2X in my car for a couple of seasons, and replaced it with an IQ3 the day they came out. Loove it!

Sami951

If money is an issue, racechrono is pretty cool. Check out http://www.racechrono.com/

I've had decent success with it, all you really need (besides a suitable mobile phone) is an external bluetooth 5hz gps receiver which can be had for like $50-60 or so. Software is free of charge...

FTS

There are couple of others that I know are thinking for buying Racepak, I'll direct them to this thread.

Btw, I use G2X, its accuracy is pretty amazing. The software's analysis capabilities are truly great, and thier customer support is #1 by far in my book. Although, I have to add that I do not have any experience with Traqmate; but I would not change my G2X.

APKhaos

We've got a bunch of Racechrono users, and they all seem pretty happy with it. You need the right Nokia phone and an external Bluetooth GPS. The interesting option is a Bluetooth OBDII reader, which provides some nice data channels [throttle position, RPM, etc]. The data rates are low [its OBDII] but they make for great video :-)